Ducks win slugfest over San Jose State

EUGENE – Anthony Hall had three hits and drove in four runs while Eugene native Sam Olsson hit his first career home run to lead Oregon to an 11-7 nonconference win over San Jose State on Tuesday at PK Park.
 
The Ducks won for the 13th time in 16 games in the month of April, including eight wins in their last 11 games.
 
How It Happened: The Ducks (25-9) fell behind early with the Spartans (4-11) scoring a run in the second and two in the third to build a 3-0 lead.
 
The Ducks countered with a five-run third and four-run fourth, while San Jose State tacked on one in both the fourth and fifth for a 9-5 Oregon lead.
 
After an out in the third, Gavin Grant reached on a hit-by-pitch and Tanner Smith walked to set the table for Hall's first two RBI. The Ducks centerfielder laced a triple into the right-center field gap scoring both runners to pull the Ducks within a run. Kenyon Yovan tied it with a RBI while reaching on a throwing error by SJSU shortstop Ruben Mercado.
 
Aaron Zavala gave the Ducks the lead driving in Yovan with a triple into the right-field corner, before scoring on a Josh Kasevich sacrifice fly to complete the five-run rally.
 
The Spartans cut the lead to one in the top of the fourth, but the Ducks responded with four runs to push the lead to 9-4.
 
After a Sam Novitske single, Olsson pulled a 0-1 pitch over the left-field wall for a two-run homer to give the Ducks a three-run lead against his former team.
 
Grant followed with a double, moved to third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-4. Smith walked for the second time, moved to second when Yovan was hit by a pitch and third on a Zavala walk before scoring on Kasevich's second sacrifice fly of the game.
 
SJSU added a run in the top of the fifth on a Ruben Ibarra leadoff home run, the last run scored until the bottom of the eighth.
 
The Ducks tacked two on in their final at-bat to push the lead to 11-5. Olsson led off the inning with a walk before Jack Haley pinch ran for the Ducks' catcher.
 
Haley moved to third on a throwing error by SJSU third baseman Theo Hardy, who threw the ball away trying to double up Haley after Grant lined out to third. Haley moved to third on the error and scored along with Smith, who walked for the third time to get on base, on a two-run Hall single.  
 
San Jose State tacked on a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, but Ducks' reliever Andrew Mosiello got out of trouble leaving the bases loaded with a strikeout to end the game.
 
Box Score Notes: Smith matched a career-high with four RBI, tying the four he had at Arizona on March 28 … Hall had his fourth multi-RBI game of the season and the seventh of his career … His three hits gave him five multi-hit games on the season and eight in his career … Kasevich had his seventh multi-RBI game of the season and the eighth of his career … Smith's three walks tied his career high set at Washington State on April 13, 2019 …  Gabe Matthews was hit by two pitches in the game, moving his career total to 40 and allowing him to pass Spencer Steer (2017-19) and Mitchell Tolman (2013-15) for second all-time at Oregon … Isaac Ayon picked up his first career win … True freshman Rio Britton fanned a career-high four batters in two innings of work.
 
On Deck: Oregon and San Jose State will meet in game two of their two-game midweek series Wednesday at 12: 05 p.m. Peyton Fuller (1-0, 2.89) will get the start for the Ducks and make his first appearance since March 5 at UC Santa Barbara.